Things you discover…
…hidden in closets can be disturbing. Stashed away, in dark corners of forgotten recesses, are the darnedest things. We’ve all heard stories about the discovery of old pictures stuck to a baseboard or a Mickey Mantle rookie card in a hole under a loose board. But what about those things hidden in closets we *don’t* necessarily want to find?
What about the ancient bird cage or kitty litter box, forgotten behind two boxes of wrapping paper and a stack of air conditioner filters? Or the dead lizard in the garage store room? People have these little closet spaces. And like their real-world counterparts, these closets can contain hidden treasures and dark surprises. I’m always shocked when I find these kinds of hidden parts of a person’s psyche. After all, I’m someone with no secrets. I’m a writer — which means my life is, literally, an open book. This isn’t true for the vast majority of people, though.
For every secret smile or quiet inside joke, there is a horribly tragic or devastatingly dark bit of the sinister waiting to rear its ugly head. I think, maybe, the world needs a “closet cleaning” day. A day of accountability where everyone lets those bad parts out for good and brings the good parts out to play.
But then again, maybe not. For most people, our secrets are what make us who we are. So until the day when people proclaim their lives fair fodder, I’ll just have to deal with being the only one without a closet.